Newman's latest idea is the ReviewerCard. For $100, customers get
a black card that says: "ReviewerCard: I write
reviews."

Not everyone can get it, explained Newman. Applicants are
apparently screened to limit cardholders to reliable, prolific
reviewers.

Just flash the card at any store or business, and it's supposed
to open new worlds of above-and-beyond customer service.

Newman claimed that his card is "not hurting anyone."

Except, of course, for Yelp users reading reviews written by people
using it for their own personal gain. Or businesses who get a
negative review because the cardholder didn't get special
treatment. Or the other customers who don't get the same
treatment as the person issuing the thinly veiled threat of a bad
review.

Newman told the Times that "it's a way to get the service you
deserve." But he also
related the time he went into a Geneva hotel, showed his card to
the clerk at the desk and asked for 50 percent off, saying that
he'd write a positive review on TripAdvisor. It apparently worked.

Newman said that when he writes
a review, he doesn't disclose that he used his status to get
preferential treatment.

"This is, of course, wrong on many levels and is an example of
how the culture of amateurism that was once one of the Internet's
more endearing qualities has become a free-for-all unburdened by
any thought of ethics or moral integrity,"
wrote Lazarus.